The Blunt Truth

Yoga Found Me

I've always been good at helping others - I was a corporate recruiter for 13 years. I connected great candidates to great managers...keeping the abundance flowing for both sides. However, I haven't always been good at doing the same for myself.
Now...I would love to share a romantic tale of my personal yoga journey - a glorious tale that depicts Disney-esque chirpy bluebirds of happiness whistling tunes of happiness & circling 'round my head as I danced my way (effortlessly) onto the yoga mat. However, the blunt truth was that those bluebirds were cigar-smoking, butt-kicking, Robert DeNiro sound-a-likes who spent their time divebombing my head, beating me with their wings and pecking the shit out me, trying to get my attention.
I didn't stumble upon yoga...Yoga found ME.

I will also add that, without a doubt, Yoga saved my life.
I was lost. I had been lost for a very looooong time. I had become something and someone that was NOT jiving with my soul. I can look back now with much softer hindsight (I call it "kindsight") and see just how many decades I had been searching...my soul patiently standing by, waiting for me to find myself and reconnect.
I was around 30, a Yankee by birth, and had recently transplanted from Orlando to a small town in Alabama. Surrounded by strangers. A newlywed. Living in a completely different culture. Trying to make my marriage work. A new mommy. Trying to nest. A career woman. Trying to fit my mind & body into a mold that my soul was rebelling against. Even in a small town in the deep south, Yoga Found Me.
There's a well-known phrase: "When the student is ready, the teacher appears." I was ready. Yoga appeared.

The first time I stepped onto the yoga mat, I knew I was home.

I found a VHS tape at a bookstore: Total Yoga by Tracey Rich & Ganga White. I don't recall much of my practice in those early days, but I know I took to it like a duck in water. The first time I stepped onto the yoga mat, I knew I was home.
I practiced, without fail, 5x a week...my infant crawling over & under me at times. A few months after my Total Yoga VHS find, the Universe delivered my teacher, Carol Stahl, and her lovely home studio: The Center for Yoga and Ayurveda. I cut my yoga teeth on Carol's trainings: alignment yoga, Yoga Therapy, and Ayurveda via Bri Maya Tiwari's Wise Earth School.
I inhaled. I exhaled. I sweated. I detoxed. I wept. I laughed. I chanted. I explored. I became my own biggest cheerleader. I celebrated the big things and the little things. I can still feel the utter elation I had the day my buttocks finally touched my heels in Balasana (child's pose). I still remember the first time I tried Nadi Sodhana and my nostril breath shifted immediately. I watched emotions and how they ran rampant through my body. I found my inner Warrior and I got to know her intimately. I practiced and I practiced and I practiced. I put myself first...for the first time.

Yoga responded by literally turning my life UPSIDE-DOWN.

Me with Ganga White, White Lotus Foundation

Yoga began stripping away anything that wasn't healthy for me - anything that wasn't aligned with my soul: beliefs, people, jobs, body weight, inches, foods, homes, vehicles, etc. Long before I ever attempted to turn upside-down in Sirsasana (headstand), yoga prepared me by tossing and turning my life, building my inner strength and commitment to Self, and making me see things from a completely different perspective.

Many years later, the Universe offered me the gift of 16 life-changing days at White Lotus Foundation, sitting with Ganga & Tracey in person, training for my yoga teacher certification, praying I could help others as these 2 had helped me oh-so-many years ago.

Rocket City Yoga Week

Rocket City Yoga Week

For many years, I taught Hatha yoga: the yoga of sun and moon - a physical discipline which focuses mainly on asanas (postures) and breathwork in order to prepare the body for spiritual pursuits. I met thousands of yogis from all over the world. It was a glorious number of years.
In 2013, I followed through with a vision I had secretly carried for years: I organized and hosted the first annual Rocket City Yoga Week: a week of free yoga taught all over the region. It was a HUGE success and we're still going strong. Rocket City Yoga Week has become the largest yoga event in Alabama!

Nowadays

These days, I've stepped away from teaching yoga - I focus now on educating entrepreneurs and yoga teachers how they can build a brand and see it through. I help bring their mission to life by building websites. I continue to expand the reach of Rocket City Yoga Week to build a more balanced community.
These days, I teach the Yoga of Business and Life, and my yoga practice is just that: it's mine and I try, whenever possible, to practice.